It takes time and resources to create an email marketing strategy that is effective. If done correctly, an email marketing campaign will continuously build awareness of your brand and help you establish customer loyalty and trust over time.
When crafting your email marketing strategy, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself to get started:
- Which email platform will I be using?
- What device will the majority of my readers be using?
- What kind of content will I be distributing?
- How often will I be sending emails and how will I track my success?
Email Platform
When it comes to email platforms, there are lots of options (free and paid) to get your started. Email platforms have a huge range of capabilities and this will help determine how you will be measuring your success, how often you will be sending emails down to the type of template you will be using.
Responsive Design
Did you know? Over half of emails are opened on a mobile device. With mobile devices being the go to, it is essential that your email campaign be designed with mobile in mind. There are several key responsive email elements to keep in mind to make your emails easy to read and a driver in your marketing campaign.
Subject Line
You’ve spent all this time collecting emails, but how are you going to catch your audience’s attention?
The subject line is one of the most important parts of your email. Take some time making the header compelling by:
- Using the recipient’s first name in the subject line
- Tap into social trends to be relevant and topical
- A/B split testing — test different lengths and tones of subject lines and monitor which get the best open rate
Content
This is really important so listen carefully: Get to the point quickly.
Recipients often only read the subject line or the first few lines of an email. This is why it is important to focus your message to fulfill the promise of the subject line and include your call to action early on in your message.
Don’t forget to make your communications feel human and sincere, and include bold and beautiful imagery that your readers can share with their networks.
Sending Schedule
Mix it up! Create a sending schedule to avoid becoming part of the noise, or your readers will fall blind to your emails. Find new themes for content and vary the times you send out emails to guarantee that your messages don’t get stale.
Sending schedules will vary depending on content. Emails may be timed to coincide with sales and promotions, be part of a regular company update, or may be crafted for immediate circulation to take advantage of a social media development.
Evaluate your clickthrough rate every few months, and slowly, the best times to send emails to your audience will emerge.
Tracking Success
After crafting and distributing every email, the audience’s response should be collected and evaluated on a regular basis so that the marketing campaign can be refined and re-focused.
It is important to experiment. Look beyond opens and clicks to measure success. Consider spam complaint rates, replies, blog comments, downloads and inquires. Design a campaign with subscriber engagement in mind: how can you encourage interaction?
Do you have any best email marketing practices? Let us know @idmloco!
